Some people say it's about a girl, some say it's about God. I think, maybe in true Bono fashion, it's about both. He's said he often confuses sex and God. I think the essence of the song is about contradiction--about being pulled apart from the inside by two forces that are hard to reconcile. Because how can you be an artist and exercise that God-given gift when you're surrounded by domesticity? Yet will you give up your happiness and family to follow the muse? Because like Bono says, the muse is taciturn and can leave you with nothing. You can apply this to every other essential contradiction of U2: sex vs God, punk vs roots, head vs heart. And the answer to the contradiction, I think, is found in the song when he sings, "and you give yourself away." As human beings we try so hard to hold on to things, refusing to let them go. Our relationships, our inspirations, our undisclosed desires and all of our tortured love. The harder these things pull at us, the harder we try to hold on to ourselves. But you know, for a seed to bloom into a tree, it must first be released into the earth to die. You have to give yourself away. Because he who cherishes his life will lose it, but he who gives it away will find it.

Basically, what I got from U2 by U2 was that at the time, Bono was having a real struggle in his life on which way to go. As an early band, U2 were subtly about spirituality. With superstardom, you start to lose that sense. Around the time, U2 were encroaching on being the biggest band in the world (and achieved it after the Joshua Tree) and Bono had to deal with all these pressures that came with it. So, that spirituality which was previously there was fading away and part of that was his loyalty to Ali. So his choices were to pursue this unknown territory of superstardom or to return to a loving, humble life with Ali. In the end, he was able to do both, thankfully, and created a sort of different rock star who doesn't rely on sex and drugs to keep going. All in all, if you look at the music, you can see all the hardship going on at the time. In the Joshua Tree, you have all these struggles. For example, Streets is wanting to escape this bitter world; ISHFWILF is a song of longing for something more; WOWY is a struggle between passions; and Bullet is just a demonstration of the horrors of life. As the band moved into Achtung Baby, they had taken ahold of such issues and basically were mocking them (Macphisto, etc.). Overall, the story behind U2 is one of my favorite things about the band and is something that is especially unique to them. Sorry for going on but I think that WOWY was just a summation of the problems arisen during the time.

deco20

My personal interpretation of the song would be that it is about the human race."And you give yourself awayAnd you give yourself awayAnd you give, and you giveAnd you give yourself away."

It's like everytime the human race progresses and move forward, we give something away to gain something else. That's kinda like life. Its always in and out. Give and take.

And the song may reflect man's tendency to resist change and cower in the wombs and caves of doubt. Ultimately, we cant live with ourselves, our humanity but its the thing that makes us, us. And yet, I feel like the song is trying to tell me that if we lose our humanity, we can soar and achieve great success but there's that part of us that's missing.

andym

relationships one day you love them the next you cant stand them..one day you agree the next you dont..one day your intimate the next your torn apart..one day your supported the next your humiliated...one day your the best thing since slice bread the next jealousy..human nature so beautifully explained in this song and thats just from the sheeps point of view dont get me started on the sheperd

Some people say it's about a girl, some say it's about God. I think, maybe in true Bono fashion, it's about both. He's said he often confuses sex and God. I think the essence of the song is about contradiction--about being pulled apart from the inside by two forces that are hard to reconcile. Because how can you be an artist and exercise that God-given gift when you're surrounded by domesticity? Yet will you give up your happiness and family to follow the muse? Because like Bono says, the muse is taciturn and can leave you with nothing. You can apply this to every other essential contradiction of U2: sex vs God, punk vs roots, head vs heart. And the answer to the contradiction, I think, is found in the song when he sings, "and you give yourself away." As human beings we try so hard to hold on to things, refusing to let them go. Our relationships, our inspirations, our undisclosed desires and all of our tortured love. The harder these things pull at us, the harder we try to hold on to ourselves. But you know, for a seed to bloom into a tree, it must first be released into the earth to die. You have to give yourself away. Because he who cherishes his life will lose it, but he who gives it away will find it.